Australia creates special crypto police unit to crack down on money laundering
Australia’s federal police have set up a new cryptocurrency unit to crack down on money laundering amid rising cryptocurrency-related crime. report September 5th.
A new crypto-focused unit was set up in August after cryptocurrency misuse surged since 2018, according to Australian Federal Police (AFP) chief of criminal assets forfeiture, Stephan Gerga. was done.team is
“…while targeting assets, it also provides valuable investigative and tracking capabilities for all commands across all businesses, such as the ability to track national security-related, child protection, cyber, or cryptocurrency transactions. and lenses, and the blockchains involved are really, really important.”
The Australian Trade Reports and Analysis Center (AUSTRAC), the government’s financial intelligence agency, warned in April that cryptocurrencies were becoming increasingly lucrative for criminals. The deputy chief executive of AUSTRAC said the anonymity of cryptocurrencies and the ease of cross-border transactions make the asset class attractive to neo-Nazis and others.
2021, Australian reportedly I lost about $26 million to crypto-related scams. In June, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Said Australians are believed to have lost AUD$205 million to cryptocurrency scams between January and May 1, 2022, but the true amount could be much higher. Nonetheless, the reported figures show a 166% increase in crypto fraud losses compared to the same period last year.
The crypto unit was set up after AFP surpassed its goal of seizing $600 million in criminal proceeds two years ahead of schedule. The new unit was also set up with the aim of attacking the wealth of criminals who have had “better than expected” results in the past, Gerga said.
The idea of setting up a special forces unit stems from the fact that cryptocurrencies form a small fraction of criminal assets, most of which consist of property and cash, yet additional information and insight is needed. Jerga said it was facilitated by
